Читать книгу Lost Faith? Doubting Religion? - CJ Brehme - Страница 4

WELCOME TO THE SECOND CHAPTER..

As we go on here, still building my Case, I will eventually show you what I consider, not only a better way, but the “best way” to meet lifes ups and downs, and do so happily no matter. At that point you no doubt will wisely and with common sense, join me and millions of others world wide, in practicing this incredible non-religious religion. And, of course, you may not.

But anyway, why did I write this book and why me??? That will unfold in the next chapter.

BUT FOR THE MOMENT…..

As you may know, there are many seemingly avid church goers who religiously attend Sunday after Sunday, supporting financially, pillars of the church, who, like me when I was a member of the Unity movement, still had lurking down deep, little teeny doubts or unanswered questions that were kept buried for fear that answers might affect their loyalty to the faith.

The reason for mentioning this is because some of you will pick up this book, get interested and then, along the way WILL find answers to your long hidden doubts, and suddenly, also like me, will enjoy the thrill at finally finding an exciting, easy/hard, spiritual Key to a far better life on earth than one could imagine.

Now, once you come upon this Key, you will find that it opens so many doors to new thoughts, all leading to you being unshakably Happy. With this happiness, it will eliminate all fears, and you’ll know how to deal with ANYTHING that life may fling at you.

And, I don’t mean the happiness one blithely uses daily like “I’m so happy to see you” and ” Oh I’m so happy, I got a raise” or ” Geez, I worked so hard today and am I happy to be home”. Of course we find out later that that happiness, as most use it, can be of short duration. I’m talking happiness that is never disappointed or discouraged no matter what happens in your life. Your Faith will also pass the same test.

A YOUNG CHURCH GOER

I, as an assumed Christian, you know, being a minister’s son and having to attend every church function, these at least 4 times a week, I had developed some questions dealing with certain church members. I couldn’t help hearing the gossip about them, like a pillar who was found less than honest, or another who was a wife beater, or one who was a drinker and a boot legger.

I would pose the question to myself as to why these so-called pillars of the church were not living according to Christian principles. I came to the conclusion eventually that it is all pretty much a matter of making choices in life, since I was aware of how we were born with free will to do so, church or no church. The why’s of this being so, still makes one wonder why some church goers live by the Golden Rule and others don’t, but still are called Christians.

I stayed in High School for 4 years but did not graduate. When I first entered High School I took on the college entrance course, but when dad died in my 3rd year, I switched to a business curriculum. Then in my fourth year I decided I didn’t need a higher education so after that year’s school year end I quit school and church all at the same time. Mind you, this was at the height of the country”s worst ever depression. Jobs were really scarce and then was when “bread lines” came into being. The thoughts and concerns about such a thing as a Depression never entered my mind.

Being so young I never gave thought to a career either, all I cared for was to work. You will find later some high lights of my existence during those years, but over time I always worked somewhere. selling magazines door to door, dish washer, waiter, pulling weeds on a farm, bus boy, bar tender, hotel clerk, wrote music, selling one thing or another, like pre-need burials, cemetery plots and head stones, stock broker, many, many jobs.

Religion was not a thing in that early life.

GETTING BACK TO THIS RELIGIOUS THING

By the way, if you are not into religion any more, do you still pray? Do you think anymore about spirituality, still with questions? Do you have little fears or in doubting, say to yourself at any time, “but suppose there really is such a God.” Did that make you quiver? Hmmmm?

Or have you come to believe, as I had, that this type of communication and believing that prayers were for the most part useless and not dependable in resolving lifes problems, therefore not needed as a source of spiritual help.

I know in my past experiences with fundamental religions, prayer was sort of a habit, especially with church going parents. You know, prayers at meals and at bedtime. Then under those conditions as you grew in age and bigger troubles developed, prayers began getting really active, sometimes even pleading ones, for this God to send help. Of course many prayers were never answered and faith weakens. Doubts start there, right?

Do you suppose that people would pray as they do if they knew for sure that they could answer their own prayers by taking full responsibility for them-selves using their own abilities and the power that we all are born with right within us. Discussion of prayer differences in a later chapter, which you should find of extreme interest and well motivated from that point, to serious considerations, as most will.

Am I against religions? No, not in that context because in our freedoms, being able to freely chose your religion is guaranteed by the Constitution. What I have against most religions is, that there are many who basically preach worshipping a singular mysterious figure, God, who is somewhere in a mysterious location called HEAVEN. And if you are good, you will somehow go there after you die and live happily ever after.

Then for those who misbehave and lead a life of sin, there is another mysterious place you will go to, and it is called HELL. No proof of either of these places existence, only that one is up there, and the other is down there. You just take the word of your Minister or Priest who will convey this message to you, often. Got to keep you in line, ya’ know.

But, you see, there are other religions who don’t worship this God figure but they call him Allah, or Imam, though at times of emotion they will chant “God is great”, even though with totally different philosophies.

Another thing is that each religion has some slight deviations in philosophy that makes them “different” and which supposedly makes them better to potential joiners. Like Presbyterian, Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran and so on. Each have a Church, the more members they attract of course calls for larger and more impressive structures for services and all. Also calling for more and more personnel to run the church, the cost factor. Of course, this means they have to raise money to support the building, the Minister, Priest, secretary etc. .. Just like any BUSINESS. Right?

When you think of the many thousands of churches in the world, each with staffs, Minister, secretary, janitor, groundskeeper, many of the with huge staffs lke the Catholic church headed in Rome, Italy, who must employ thousands and if you consider the cost of upkeep of the Vatican alone, you have to know that they have to raise an enormous amount of money support it all. Of course, it has to operate like any business. And they pay NO TAXES. Pretty neat, don’t you think?

However, it is not all completely sweetness and light because right here in my home area, there was a church that had only been operating since about 2006, that was closed by order of the bank for non payment of their mortgage, just like any business who could’t make it.

SO, WHO IS IN CHARGE?

Moving on a bit here, have you ever given a stray thought like ”How does the world function day after day, year after year, millennium after millennium” and wonder ” Who is really in charge?”

(Since I couldn’t have said it better, I credit the following to “Work The system” by Sam Carpenter, a telecommunications pro and business owner.”)

Well, if you dig deep enough and with a normal amount of common sense, you will find that there is NO HUMAN KING OF EVERYTHING who directs the goings on of the world.

On its own and no matter what, the earth keeps turning, life carries on in an organized structure an pattern — AND NO ONE IS IN CHARGE.

 What it is, are the indomitable laws of nature which ensure the system works perfectly. On this earth, gravity works all the time, everywhere. The laws of Nature cause the mechanism of the world to be dependable and predictable and we humans are blessed to get in the middle of it all to manipulate it, to direct our lives to be what we think we want them to be, which is to say we use the laws of nature to our advantage. End Quote.

Despite that, religions still spread the thought of every one being under the influence of this anthropomorphic God figure or person. Of course we are saved by the accepted fact that we were all born with the right of Free Will, so it all boils down to a matter of choice hence the quote, ” IN ALL THE AFFAIRS OF LIFE, AT EVERY MOMENT, WE HAVE A CHOICE”.

Now, in addition, when you think about this Heaven and Hell existing at some mysterious location which you can’t reach except by dying, you are supposed to live an exemplary life thereby earning your way to Heaven. But about this Hell, from the sound of what goes on down there, it is not a fun place to get caught in. So wouldn’t you think that there would be enough fear in the idea of going there, to make people behave and avoid sin really hard. But NOOOO. I think you would agree that sin is pretty active in the world, as well as all sorts of evil with no sign of either diminishing as a result of religions and this so-called God.

I recall hearing any number of times that

 HE knows what you need before you ask.

 God helps those who help themselves.

 It shall be measured unto you according to your faith.

Now, unless you believe in fairy tales, just check these three statements and you just have to conclude that if you have any feel for responsibility at all, you have to either blindly depend on the far out God or realize that in reality you don’t need Him. I did, and I think you will, stop and ask yourself, — why do I need to pray if this God already knows my wants and needs, and He being so loving and benevolent? This can start doubts, Ya’ know? You will see near the end of this book that, you can handle the first rule yourself, and that the last two, benefits you automatically under the LAW, as in this Non-Religious Religion. Plus other benefits galore. ALL with NO outside help. What a relief THIS is. Would you believe, as a result, a new and a happily attractive YOU? What an incredible feeling. You”ll see. As to that last, according to faith. Well, yes, Faith is extremely important and you’ve got to have it no matter. Oh yeah, how much? Try Unlimited. So YOU have to ask, how do you get Unlimited Faith? Proof, proof, and more proof. I have to tell you that after nearly 15 years practicing this non-religious religion, it started to PROVE itself right from the beginning and never stopped. I NOW HAVE UNLIMITED FAITH, even though at first I had my doubts too. As we all will concede, doubts breed anxiety, so it will be good right here to suggest that as you will delve more into resolving your spiritual self, that you keep solidly in mine this truth….”The beginning of Anxiety is the end of Faith. The beginning of True Faith is the end of Anxiety.?

CASE IN POINT

In the Voice of the People section in one of our local newspapers, a writer lent his voice with the heading on his letter “A Warning of Apocalypse unless America repents.” He stated his case with “some liberal papers do not like the truth where the Lord is concerned. Then he repeated his warning to the nation itself. (Typical Christian fear tactics) with this revelation that “God lifted his hand of blessing OFF our nation and ALLOWED 9/11. This loving God, apparently in a pique had no problem in allowing nearly 3000 diverse group of people get horribly killed. WHY? Because officials determined that this was HIS punishment in order to teach the nation a lesson. Further HE has now sent financial troubles, tornadoes and strange weather, allegedly with the warning that if people do not repent, pray and “seek his face”, whatever that means, y’all will get more of the same. Now, if all this be true, like if we all got down on our knees and repented, then no more bad things would happen. Oh come on. But maybe that only means if you are a christian. Didn’t say what the rest of us would be suffering, more financial troubles, storms, tsunamis and so on. Sheessh, guess I will have to chant a lot more, ya’ think? Oh wait, one final warning. The writer also said that “if the nation did not repent we will fact a total wipe-out in less than 10 years. Hey reader, you’ve got another choice coming here. Hope you are ready. Tsk Tsk !